This invention relates to a transparent dental tube unit and, more particularly, to a transparent dental tube for supplying a fluid under pressure, such as water or air, to the foremost part of a main body of a dental handpiece.
A dental tube unit employed for dental treatment is made up of a dental handpiece, a fluid supply source for supplying the fluid, such as water or air, under pressure, and a tube unit used as passages for air or water from the supply source to the handpiece. The tube unit includes an air supply tube, an air discharge tube, a water supply tube for supplying water to the foremost part of the handpiece, and an outer enclosure tube enclosing therein the air supply tube, the air discharge tube and the water supply tube. The air supplied under pressure from the fluid supply source through the air supply tube to the main body of the handpiece is used for running a turbine mechanism disposed at a head part of the handpiece in rotation so as to be then discharged via the air discharge tube. On the other hand, the water supply tube is used for supplying water from the supply source to the dental handpiece or for cooling the teeth which have become hot under the heat of friction generated during the dental treatment. It is noted that there are occasions wherein the air is discharged without passing through the air discharge tube.
However, it is known that when the operation of the turbine of the dental handpiece is halted, the tooth debris or saliva or the like impurities from the oral cavity of the patient tend to be sucked into the inside of the handpiece and into the inside of the tube. Consequently, the inside of the tube is contaminated and there arises the risk of transmission of an infectious disease such as B-hepatitis from a host patient to other patients. For this reason, it is necessary that not only the dental handpiece but also the above-mentioned tubes be disinfected by an autoclave or exchanged with new ones. Besides, it is necessary to check the status of contamination within the tube from time to time. On the other hand, the status of contamination within the inside of the tube cannot be checked with ease.
There has not hitherto been made a proposal for providing a device for preventing the contamination of the dental tube unit.